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If you missed seeing bylines by Jackie Trescott in the Washington Post recently, there was a reason. Trescott took a leave of absence to direct the Summer Program for Minority Journalist housed at the University of California at Berkeley. This was the second time in three years that she has served as director.
The program, an 11-week, 6-days-a-week session, is run by the Institute for Journalist Education, a nonprofit foundation started in 1976 to ensure that minorities integrate the nation's news rooms.
"The Institute," explains Trescott, "has a plan called the Year 2000 Plan, which aims at integrating news rooms through reporters, photographers, editors, as well as news content."
Trescott says that mandate has been accepted by the American Society of Newspaper Editors as its own charge. The cooperation between the two groups is a major breakthrough for minorities, and one that signals some concern on behalf of the predominately White male newspaper editors to right some of the wrongs in many of their hiring practices. The summer program rains print journalist, who may come from varying walks of life.
"It trains people who are interested in journalism," explains Trescott, "as well as people who have tried to get into the field and found the doors closed for whatever number of reasons. People who are...